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Monday, 9 September 2013

My first few days in Spain

So in these past few days I have said good bye to my old life (for 10 months) and have said hello to my new life. I left New Zealand on the 5th of September, saying Good bye to my parents and boyfriend at the domestic flight (which made me look stupid for crying). It was so sad saying good bye, even though i knew they would still be there when i got back. In auckland, I got on a plane to start the so-called journey of a lifetime. The first flight to Melbourne was fine (4 hours) there was 2 of us afs'ers sitting together (Hugo and I) and we had 3 seats between the two of us which made for a semi comfortable flight. But I was wrong to think that the next flight might be half as comfortable at least. The flight to Dubai was, to put it lightly, horrible. It lasted for 13 hours and the sleeping pills didn't help. Seeing Dubai ( the tiniest part of it) was awesome, straight away you could see the differences in their life compared to ours in New Zealand. I wish I could have seen more! On the positive side, I got to watch 3 movies that I had wanted to watch for a while ( monsters inc university, totally worth it)

On my arrival in Spain (madrid)I had so many emotions , like 'am I really here??' And 'oh my gosh, I'm really here!!' I felt so happy and sad at the same time. Wow I couldn't describe it if I tried. I then met the other AFS Spain students and we went to a hotel to stay the night before departing to meet our host families I had no idea that there were so many students going to Spain, there were maybe around 50. I was so unbelievably tired on my first day in Spain that I thought I would pass out, that or throw up. Unfortunately I could not sleep until the orientation (rules and stuff) was done. I think the worst thing that i discovered was that my feet swelled up so much from the flights! They were so big and pink, they looked like they had grown 3 sizes and they ached so much! I was very very thankful to collapse onto the hotel room bed (despite the fact that it was so hard it felt like I was sleeping on a table).

On my second day in Spain I travelled by train to meet my host family, I was very nervous, not about them liking me but about my lack of ability to speak Spanish (or Catalan) turns out that yes, it was worse than I thought :p they speak so fast , and here, in Barcelona, they generally speak Catalan which I didn't learn and they also have a lisp. This means that even if I do know the word I cannot recognise it with their lisp present. But boy are they lovely people! I am so glad to have them as my new family, they are so accommodating and kind. My host dad speaks English quite well which is good and bad. On arrival at their house (our house - sounds weird) we spoke or attempted to speak before having dinner at 9 and then I went to sleep in my new bedroom, new bed ( which to my dismay was just as hard as the previous bed in Madrid) many thoughts were running through my head but I soon drifted off to the sound if rain ( it rarely rains in Spain, but it conveniently did on the day I arrived).

Yesterday my dad and my sister, along with our neighbours (two boys my age) went wakeboardin, in the Olympic canal. I went with them but I only watched this time. I know, what a wussy! But I have 10 months here, I will try it sometime soon. It looked very fun and the weather was lovely. Everyone had shorts and singlets on, showing their tan bodies. I am so white! I joked about looking like an albino here but I seriously do look like an albino. :/ mama Mia! The Mosquitos like me here too so I have white legs with red spots, arrg. Not ideal.
For dinner, again at 9, we had rice, chicken and a nice sauce that I don't know the name of. It was different but very nice :) I hope we go out for tapas or something some time soon because I had them in a Mexican restaurant once and they were amazing!

Today we are about to have lunch, rice, tomato, Tuna, cucumber and mango, a very weird mixture but I will give it a go :p we have been shopping to get shampoo etc and also a SIM card for my phone, apparently you need a passport to buy a SIM card? Strange. Navigating around castelldefels (my town) will be difficult I believe, it just looks so confusing with lots and lots Of little streets in all directions but the town itself is beautiful :)

Sorry for the long post , but if you are reading this you have hopefully read it all! Thanks :p ahh this is amazing :)

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About Me

Hey everyone! This blog is all about my adventures as an exchange student in Spain, Barcelona! You will read about the good, the bad and everything in between, so I hope you enjoy reading about my experiences :)